(48)Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 allows credit ratings issued in third countries to be used for regulatory purposes if they are issued by credit rating agencies certified in accordance with that Regulation or endorsed by credit rating agencies established in the Union in accordance with that Regulation. Certification requires that the Commission has adopted an equivalence decision regarding the third country’s regulatory regime for credit rating agencies and endorsement requires that the conduct of the third-country credit rating agency fulfils requirements which are at least as stringent as the relevant Union rules. Some of the provisions introduced by this Regulation should not apply to the equivalence and endorsement assessments. This is the case for those provisions that only establish obligations on issuers but not on credit rating agencies. In addition, provisions that relate to the structure of the credit rating market within the Union rather than establishing rules of conduct for credit rating agencies should not be considered in this context. In order to grant third countries sufficient time to review their regulatory frameworks regarding the remaining new substantive provisions, the latter should only apply for the purpose of the equivalence and endorsement assessments as of 1 June 2018. It is important to recall in this respect that a third-country regulatory regime does not have to have identical rules as those provided for in this Regulation. As already provided for in Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009, in order to be considered equivalent to or as stringent as the Union regulatory regime, it should be sufficient that the third-country regulatory regime achieve the same objectives and effects in practice.